Sometimes it's mentioned in connection with Montreal's executive committee. Other times, it's linked to the Union Montreal party, or — as it was on Monday — simply to "politics."

But the number is always the same.

Three witnesses at the Charbonneau Commission have now testified, independently, that for years, a three-per-cent "tax" was being skimmed off the top of public works contracts in Montreal and funnelled back to city hall.

The latest person to make the claim is Michel Leclerc, the head of construction company Terramex Inc., who on Monday morning told the ongoing public inquiry that he paid the tax to fellow contractor Nicolo Milioto of Mivela Construction.

"Mr. Milioto said it was going to 'politics,' " was all the witness could tell Justice France Charbonneau.

Leclerc is the third construction boss to be called to testify before the commission. The first, Lino Zambito, also spoke about the three-per-cent cut, but specified that it was going to Union Montreal, the party of former mayor Gérald Tremblay. Retired city engineer Gilles Surprenant said he believed the three per cent was being handed to someone on the city's executive committee. He named no names.

On Monday, Leclerc couldn't provide any clear answers about what Milioto was doing with the money, but he was nonetheless able to add fresh pieces to the puzzle that the commission is attempting to assemble.

According to Leclerc, as early as the mid-1990s, there were small groups of companies controlling nearly every type of public works contract in Montreal. Projects involving sewers, aqueducts, paving, sidewalks and even parks were being fixed by the contractors bidding on the work, he said, with the winners being determined well in advance. Before the city was amalgamated, there were even cartels operating within individual boroughs.

According to Leclerc, contracts in Verdun were dominated by Catcan Construction. It was Excavations Super in LaSalle, Garnier in Ville St-Laurent and TGA in the City of Westmount, he alleged.

"I think there were territories, and (the companies) were protecting their land."

The result of all this collusion was, predictably, much higher bills for taxpayers. In most cases, projects were costing up to 30 per cent more than they should have, Leclerc said, echoing the testimony of previous witnesses.

Leclerc said he initially resisted getting involved in collusion, claiming that he twice refused a request from Garnier Construction head Joe Borsellino to cancel Terramex's bid on a contract. The first time, Leclerc said, Borsellino even offered him $50,000 cash to back off.

"We had to work," said Leclerc when asked why he refused the requests. "If we accepted their demands, we wouldn't work anywhere. ... At a certain point you have to stand up."

That resistance apparently hit a brick wall in 1998, when entrepreneur Milioto allegedly approached Leclerc and informed him that "anything to do with sidewalks in Montreal passes through me."

Leclerc testified that while there were never any physical threats, Milioto — then the head of Mivela Construction and the alleged middleman between the Rizzuto crime family and Montreal's top construction bosses — was "more convincing" than Borsellino had been. He admitted that he eventually agreed to a deal where Terramex would be awarded the subcontracts on work done on sidewalks by Milioto's company. In exchange, Leclerc said, he would pay Milioto the infamous three-per-cent tax.

Starting in 2004, he was also handing a 1.5-per-cent "cut" to Franco Cappello of Excavations Super, he said, to ensure Leclerc's company got regular work maintaining and repairing Montreal's public parks.

Municipal officials were also in on the scheming, Leclerc alleged. The entrepreneur said he once paid a public servant working for the city — identified as Guy Girard — $5,000 cash to speed up payment on a 2004 contract and circumvent the administrative delays that were endemic within the public works department. After he gave Girard the money, Leclerc said, he "got the five-star treatment."

On another contract, Leclerc allegedly went all the way to the top — to the former head of the public works department, Robert Marcil. The two met at a restaurant in August 2005 to discuss the fact that Leclerc's bid on an upcoming project on Savoie Ave. was too high, the witness said.

Leclerc testified that Marcil explained to him that if he reduced his cost estimates by nine per cent, the contract would go through and he could then make up the difference in "extra" charges.

Leclerc, whose company was found guilty of fraud in 2010, is expected to retake the stand on Tuesday morning.

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